Frank Auerbach was born in Berlin in 1931, though as a young boy escaped Nazism by moving to England. He studied at St Martin’s School of Art in London, as well as at the Royal College of Art. He is most famous for his drawings and paintings. Portraits comprise much of his work, and his three most prolific models include his wife Julia, his model Juliet, and his friend Estella. His painting style is characteristically thick, with large amounts of paint built-up on the canvas, and his colour palette is varied. In 1978, the Hayward Gallery in London organised a retrospective of his work. He has exhibited in the past with the artist Lucian Freud.